At the recent meeting of Labour Women in Dublin, Eamon Gilmore reiterated his committment to gender quotas for candidate selection.
He said:
“… But being a national party is not just about geographical reach. It should also be a party that reflects Ireland today; a reflection of how we live our lives now.
Given that less than 14 per cent of the members of the 31st Dáil are women – and that half of constituencies have no women TDs at all – no one would argue that our parliament is a fair reflection of 21st century Ireland.
Labour has, in recent years, done better than most in electing women representatives, with new deputies Anne Ferris, Ciara Conway and Anne Phelan bringing the total number of women TDs to eight. All of Labour’s recommendations for the Taoiseach’s nominations to the Seanad were women, and deliberately so.
Since the new Government came into office, three of the most senior legal officeholders in the State are now women – the Attorney General; the Director of Public Prosecutions; and the Chief Justice.
Do I think it’s enough? Of course not. We still have a lot of work to do to achieve a better gender balance in public life.
That work is underway. The forthcoming Electoral (Political Funding) (Amendment) Bill, to be published this Dáil session, will provide that political parties will have their funding cut in half after the next general election, unless at least 30 per cent of their candidates are women, and 30 per cent are men. This will rise to 40 per cent after seven years. This was a core policy commitment of Labour in opposition, and is being implemented by Labour in Government.
The aim of this legislation is not to penalise political parties, but to incentivise them to actively encourage women to stand for election.
But even without this incentive, the 2014 local elections will be a critical milestone. Let no one be in any doubt: we will not increase women’s representation in the Dáil unless we increase their representation at local level.
And let’s be clear: one of the most important lessons of the general, local and European elections of the past two years, is that the quality of the candidate is very important. It is not enough simply to field more women candidates: we have to field candidates who can win.
That takes effort; it takes hard work and, as any elected representative will tell you, it takes sacrifices. What is more, it takes time – time to build a profile; time to build a team; and time to fundraise.
In short, good candidates are made, not born.
As leader, I can tell you that our objective, as a party, will be to increase the number of Labour women representatives in the 2014 local elections, and in the next general election. But to do that, we need women candidates who are well positioned to fight for, and win seats.
The party as a whole can, and will, support good candidates. Labour Women has a particular role to play in providing the kind of practical support that gets people elected. We all want to see more women in public life, but that means putting our time, our efforts, and our money, where our mouth is.”
It is great to see the equality agenda in reality as opposed to the lipservice that is sometime paid to the issue. We have been going backwards, when you look at other democracies and the attention they have paid to leveling the playing field for female participation in political decision making.
Please make an effort to attend the 5050 meeting in Dublin on 22 November to hear the arguments that make candidate selection gender quotas the best way to catch up.
